---
title: The queen’s councillors were not the wisest of people, and they deci… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The queen’s councillors were not the wisest of people, and they decided between them that the turtle should take the monkey back to his native land and allow him to get his liver off the bush, but desired the turtle not to lose sight of his charge for a single moment. Who acts: councillors, turtle. 
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Monkey and the Jelly-fish, sentence 34

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The queen’s councillors were not the wisest of people, and they decided between them that the turtle should take the monkey back to his native land and allow him to get his liver off the bush, but desired the turtle not to lose sight of his charge for a single moment.

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**Who acts:** councillors, turtle · **What happens:** not be, decide, take back, allow, get, desire · **To what, where:** monkey, native land, turtle, liver, sight, charge · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Monkey and the Jelly-fish. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (councillors, turtle), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Parsed by Mova, not checked by a teacher.** This tree is Mova's own parse (the `en` model, on the CPU, when the site is built); it may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg641:32:34
# text = The queen’s councillors were not the wisest of people, and they decided between them that the turtle should take the monkey back to his native land and allow him to get his liver off the bush, but desired the turtle not to lose sight of his charge for a single moment.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	queen	queen	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	’s	's	PART	POS	_	2	case	_	_
4	councillors	councillor	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nsubj	_	_
5	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
6	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	8	advmod	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	wisest	wise	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	0	root	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
13	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	decided	decide	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	parataxis	_	_
15	between	between	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	obl	_	_
17	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	turtle	turtle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	_
20	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
21	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	ccomp	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	monkey	monkey	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	_
24	back	back	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
25	to	to	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
26	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	28	nmod:poss	_	_
27	native	native	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	land	land	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
30	allow	allow	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	conj	_	_
31	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	iobj	_	_
32	to	to	PART	TO	_	33	mark	_	_
33	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	30	xcomp	_	_
34	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	35	nmod:poss	_	_
35	liver	liver	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obj	_	_
36	off	off	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
37	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
38	bush	bush	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	41	punct	_	_
40	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	41	cc	_	_
41	desired	desire	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	conj	_	_
42	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	43	det	_	_
43	turtle	turtle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	41	obj	_	_
44	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	46	advmod	_	_
45	to	to	PART	TO	_	46	mark	_	_
46	lose	lose	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	41	xcomp	_	_
47	sight	sight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	46	obj	_	_
48	of	of	ADP	IN	_	50	case	_	_
49	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	50	nmod:poss	_	_
50	charge	charge	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	47	nmod	_	_
51	for	for	ADP	IN	_	54	case	_	_
52	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	54	det	_	_
53	single	single	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	54	amod	_	_
54	moment	moment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	46	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
55	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is** | past | the queen's councillors |  |  |  |  | of people; wise *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **decide** | past | councillors *= councillor* |  |  |  |  | between people | vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **take back** | should | the turtle | the monkey |  | turtle's native land |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent monkey=Theme to land=Destination |
| 4 | **allow** | infinitive | the turtle *not said here* |  | turtle |  |  |  | vn allow-64.1-1 «NP V NP S»: agent=Causer he=Beneficiary clause=Eventuality |
| 5 | **get** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | the turtle *not said here* | turtle's liver |  |  |  | off the bush | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer liver=Stimulus |
| 6 | **desire** | past | councillors *= councillor* *not said here* | the turtle |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 7 | **not** **lose** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | councillors *= councillor* *not said here* | sight of turtle's charge |  |  | moment |  | vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sight=Eventuality |
| 8 | **sight** |  |  | turtle's charge |  |  |  |  | nom sight «cognition transitive»: of=patient |
| 9 | **charge** |  | turtle |  |  |  |  |  | nom charge «act transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .note -->
One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

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**Text:** «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 641 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

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